Category Archives: Jungle

I have been honored when Danny Gregory offered me to participate in his book an ‘Illustrated journal’. Now, he has just started with Koosje Koene a new fun venture, Sketchbook Skool. In a nutshell, Sketchbook Skool is an online initiative to share with people how keeping an illustrated journal can rock your world !

I decided to join it as a student because because of Danny’s incredible creativity. He has truly original ideas, some of which are sometimes really, really counterintuitive, like getting rid of the pen or applying gouache to shape your model before even drawing it.
It seemed so absurd that I obviously rushed to give it a try !
As you know, since i’m a great fan of Tintin, i took the famous Arumbaya fetish of “The broken Ear” that i have carved 15 years ago in an old oak beam – my only attempt to sculpture – and tried to apply gouache directly on the paper on the and then, draw the fetish with a tip pen.
It gave me a very exciting feeling to go drawing without a pencil. Also, the last time i practiced gouache, i still was a kid. So using it again was a very pleasant experience bringing back youth souvenirs. Some kind of a Proust madeleine.
And the final result turned to be a very different drawing.

So, la Vengeance de Chapultepec is really the beginning of the series ?
My wife and I have wanted for quite a long time go visit Latin America, probably inspired by Prisoners of the Sun (Le Temple du Soleil)

The strong sequence of this trip was undoubtedly the Mayan city of Palenque in the heart of the Mexican jungle. At that time, only a small part of the city hidden in the tropical jungle had been cleared: a few restored temples, amid overgrown luxurious vegetation. Two local guides proposed us an exploration in the forest to look closely at the temples still buried in the tropical vegetation.
We watched ironically our guides when they took out big machetes. Was it really to cut vines on the trail or more probably to give a thrill to tourists in search of emotions?
We had no time to bring an answer since we heard one of the guide’s machete slashing. The two halves of a venomous snake were writhing in convulsions on the edge of the trail.
Respect!

The third cover Flinflin was born in that very moment. The cover of Tintin et les Picaros with its gorgeous scenery was a perfect match. In a trice, the Aztec pyramid changed into a Mayan one while our Mexican guide turned into a Mayan high priest.

While former covers were only one-shot drawings in my mind, the idea of a series really came at that time: using pastiches covers of Tintin albums to keep track of intense moments of our family life.